Denver Staple Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox Reopens
With New Menu, Live Shows, And Additional Dance Floor Space
After two years laying in wait, Denver staple and favorite ‘gastrobrothel’ Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox has officially reopened today. Ophelia’s provides a unique dining and entertainment experience while adhering to ongoing health and safety recommendations. Restaurant, bar service, and live performances are set to resume, kicking off the grand opening with R&B artist Mndsgnto at 9pm PT. You can find more info HERE.
“We waited a long time to kick off the hi-heeled sneakers, and bring back Ophelia's 2.0,” owner Justin Cucci stated.” “And we are so grateful that we get to finally unpack and unveil the updated and evolved version of Ophelia's. It's time to plug in the electric soapbox, and kick out the jams and let it be. Ophelia's is still a thirst trap, a hunger trap, a raw flame, a live wire....”
Owner and chef Justin Cucci spent the last several months renovating the 7,500-square-foot venue to make the downstairs bigger and more accommodating for concerts, which includes moving the bar and adding additional dance floor space, as well as upgrading sound and lighting equipment to the standard of national touring acts. Recently, Aron Magner of the Disco Biscuits, Magic Giant, and Good Morning performed private shows at the venue. There is a full calendar of upcoming performances that includes bands like Mile High Soul Club (April 14), Andy Thorn & Burning Grass (April 20), Wet (May 3), JoJo Hermann of Widespread Panic (June 4), Shinyribs (June 10) and We Banjo 3 (July 30). See the full schedule HERE.
The ‘gastrobrothel’ has upgraded their menu offerings to focus on handhelds and dance floor-friendly items, while still offering fresh, interesting new takes on shared plates, flatbreads, skillets, and other pub fare. New menu items include fried pickles with cheese curds, pastrami double-fried wings that “won’t give you wing fingers,” says Cucci, and the exciting Bong & a Blintz, or cheese-stuffed crepe, infused with CBD. This revamped menu reflects Cucci’s commitment to vegetable-forward healthful dishes, global flavors, and sustainability practices.The bar also features bright handcrafted cocktails with local ingredients, bottles from around the world, and a 24-tap draft line of all-Colorado beers.
Like the other five restaurants in Cucci’s acclaimed Edible Beats family, Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox honors the historical use of its space. Its 1890s-era Victorian brownstone, the Airedale Building, once housed a brothel and peep show; Ophelia’s flaunts its sultry origins in a playful style that also celebrates sexuality. The design aesthetic for Ophelia’s interior is inspired by vintage finds collected by Cucci over time, from the stage’s sex show booths and a backdrop festooned with 500 transistor radios, to the bars’ classic pinball machine tops and 400 Jager bottles. The décor pays homage to the building’s history and evokes an atmosphere of indulgence.
About Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox
Ophelia’s restaurant, bar, and live music venue—launched in 2015---knows how to throw down. This swank Ballpark gem serves up gastrobrothel fare paired with fresh kinks on classic cocktails and neo-old-school hospitality. The building, a Victorian brownstone on the National Register of Historic Places, was a brothel, sex shop, and peep show before becoming Ophelia’s, and now flaunts its sultry beginnings in a style both cheeky and sex positive. Ophelia’s is a boudoir-chic historical remix and Denver’s sexiest spot to indulge.
About Justin Cucci
Chef/owner of Edible Beats restaurant group, Justin Cucci is constantly striving to create “craveable” culinary music in one-of-a-kind, innovative spaces. A pioneer in farm-to-table dining, his family of six Denver restaurants including Root Down, Linger, El Five, Vital Root, Root Down DIA, and Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox offer culinary excellence with a remix of local, seasonal and sustainable vegetable-forward cuisine. Raised in New York in a family of restaurateurs, Cucci transforms unlikely spaces including a gas station, a former brothel, and a mortuary into welcoming, contemporary eateries. An avowed music freak who named his first restaurant in the Colorado capital after the Beastie Boys album Root Down, Cucci has an ear for combining the languages of music and food, most notably at the newly renovated and reopened live music venue/gastropub Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox. He is also the author of The Edible Beat cookbook featuring 60 delicious recipes, and has another cookbook in the works.
Justin adeptly blends the rhythms of food and music with a backbeat of design and hospitality, creating a harmonious language completely unique to Edible Beats.
About Edible Beats
Edible Beats was born from a single idea: The creation of a vibrant neighborhood restaurant inDenver, starting in late 2008. In the span of a decade, Edible Beats has grown into six thriving, nationally recognized and award-winning restaurants known for thoughtful, vegetable-forward and sustainably sourced menus.
All of the Edible Beats restaurants—Linger, Vital Root, El Five, Root Down, Root Down DIA (at Denver International Airport), and Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox---share a commonality: taking inspiration from the history and location of their original buildings and mixing in design elements from Owner Justin Cucci’s reclaimed and mid-mod collections, creating interior spaces like nothing guests have seen before. Edible Beats is a collection of enticing ingredients—food-based, groove-friendly, and guest driven. Cucci is also the author of 2019’s The Edible Beat cookbook.
OPHELIA’S ELECTRIC SOAPBOX ON THE WEB